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-:- Venus In Winter -:-
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-:- The Darling Strumpet -:-
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-:- The September Queen - :-
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Gillian has a new article published in Smithsonian Magazine!

“The Surprisingly Radical Roots of the Renaissance Fair”

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I encourage you to buy my books at your local independent bookstore. If they don't have them in stock, they can order them! In the San Francisco Bay Area, you can buy my books at Laurel Bookstore, and have them shipped.
Bookshop.org

You can also buy them through my publisher, Penguin Random House

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Articles &
-:- Other Writings -:-

“The Darling Strumpet's Long Path to Publication”

“Nell Gwynn, Popular Star of Restoration Theatre”

“Cleopatra in Restoration London”

“How Life Can Change a Writing Space”

“Jane Lane: The Girl Who Saved the English Monarchy”

“Jane Lane and the Royal Miracle”

“The Royal Oak” (historicaltapestry.
blogspot.com )

“Priest Holes”

“The Next Best Thing to Being There: Recreating a Journey by Internet”

“Riding Pillion”

“Portrait Miniatures”

“My Writing Process: Making History into Fiction”

“Witch Deposits and Witch Bottles”

“Tudor Banquets and Sugar as Art”

“The Power of Marrying Well and Widowhood”

“Cooking with Roses”

“The Tudor Housewife's Remedies for Pregnancy and Motherhood”

“A Willow, Not an Oak: Bess of Hardwick and Religion”

“Tudor Jousting Tournaments: Pageantry, Excitement, and Danger”

“Bess of Hardwick and the Tragedy of Jane Grey”

“Doggett's Coat and Badge”




Gillian's articles on the months from May 1660 to January 1661, to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the Restoration of Charles II, the reopening of the playhouses that had been closed for eighteen years under Cromwell, and the first appearance of an actress on the English stage:

May 1660: Hoydens and Firebrands

June 1660: Reading the Past

July 1660: Historical Tapestry

Aug. 1660: Passages To The Past

Sept. 1660: History Hoydens

Oct. 1660: Historical Fiction Connection (Website currently inactive)

Nov. 1660: Historically Obsessed

Dec. 1660: Nell Gwynn Blog

Jan. 1661: Historical Tapestry



Gillian has two articles,
"The History of Gingerbread" and "Doggett's Coat and Badge: the World's Oldest Rowing Race" in this compilation of essays by more than fifty authors of historical fiction on real-life stories and tantalizing tidbits discovered while doing research for their own historical novels.

Castles, Customs & Kings
on Amazon.com


Follow Me on Pinterest


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“Bagwell may be one of the newer writers in the historical fiction genre, but she is one of the most talented! ” - Pittsburgh Historical Fiction Examiner

“Don't you just love it when you find a new favourite author!!!! ”
- Jaffa Reads Too book blog


-:- Biography -:-

Gillian Bagwell's richly detailed historical novels bring to vivid life England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The Darling Strumpet puts the reader smack in the tumultuous world of seventeenth-century London, charting Nell Gwynn's meteoric rise from the grimy slums to triumph as a beloved comic actress through the cataclysmic years of the last plague epidemic and the Great Fire of 1666 to the licentious court and the arms of the king.

The September Queen (UK title The King's Mistress) is the first fictional accounting of the extraordinary real-life adventure of Jane Lane, who risked all to help the young Charles II escape after the disastrous Battle of Worcester in 1651, saving his life and the future of the British monarchy.

Venus in Winter, based on the first forty years of the life of the formidable four-times widowed dynast Bess of Hardwick, begins with young Bess's introduction to the court of Henry VIII just as the king weds Anne of Cleves. Bess quickly learns to navigate the treacherous waters and survives the turbulent reigns of five Tudor monarchs to become one of the most wealthy and powerful women in England.

Gillian's life-long fascination with British history and her dedication to research infuse her novels with a compelling evocation of time and place. She blogged her research adventures for The Darling Strumpet and The September Queen, (NellGwynn.Blogspot.com) and posted the day-by-day events of Charles II's dramatic escape after the Battle of Worcester (TheRoyalMiracle.Blogspot.com).

Gillian received a BA in Dramatic Arts from the University of California at Berkeley and a certificate from the Drama Studio London at Berkeley, a one-year professional acting program, and she's a member of Actors' Equity Association and SAG/AFTRA. She's performed extensively on stage and founded the Pasadena Shakespeare Company, which she ran for ten years as artistic director, producing thirty-seven critically acclaimed shows, nine of which she directed, as well as numerous concert readings, and has also directed at other theatres.

These days, Gillian uses her theatre experience to coach authors and others on public speaking. She lives in Berkeley, California, and is at work on her fourth book, a Gothic novel set mostly in Scotland in 1901-1902.

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Gillian also offers writing coaching and editing, performance coaching and deposition summaries. Read about these services at

GillianBagwell.com/WordsWordsWords

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Historical Novel Society conference 2012, the Nell-Rochester scene from The Darling Strumpet with Diana Gabaldon reading the narration.



        Video by Johnny Yates



Historical Novel Society conference 2011, the Nell-Rochester scene from The Darling Strumpet with Diana Gabaldon reading the narration.



-:- Interviews -:-

Reading the Past | Jaffa Reads Too | Unusual Historicals | Inside Bay Area
| Lady Jane Grey Reference Guide


I've posted several videos on Nell Gwynn's London, sites associated with Nell's life, and/or scenes from The Darling Strumpet.

-:- See them on YouTube -:-


-:- Links of Interest -:-

The Diary of Samuel Pepys | The Letters of Bess of Hardwick Project | Spitalfields Life | Patricia Bracewell blog | J.D. Davies website
Reading the Past | Passages to the Past | Historical Novel Society | Historical Writers Association
The National Trust - A good source for guidebooks to historic houses and other sites in the UK, books on historic costume, etc.
Elizabethan Costume Facebook Group | | The Closet Historian: 7 Historic Costuming Blogs You Should be Following
The Lazy Historian: Five Historical Costume Bloggers You Should Follow | A Fashion History | The Mantua Maker
Tudor Tailor - Books, patterns, a vast amount of information. | Past Patterns | Smoke & Fire Company - Provides goods for living history reenactors. | Shrader Bootmaker | The 18th-Century Material Culture Resource Center - Hundreds of images of everyday objects, clothing, reproductions of period engravings and paintings, etc. | Alwen Historical Costuming


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